A Communist Power Grab
- Leftist Congress gives their Socialist President the power to pass laws without congressional approval.
The Socialist-Communist majority in the Venezuelan Congress granted President Nicolas Maduro yearlong decree powers on Tuesday that he says are essential to regulate the economy and stamp out corruption but adversaries view as a power grab.
Hundreds of supporters of the ruling Socialist Party cheered outside the National Assembly as the so-called Enabling Law was passed, while a recording of Maduro's late predecessor, Hugo Chavez, singing Venezuela's anthem rang out inside the hall reports Reuters News.
The power to pass laws without congressional approval gives Maduro a political victory in the run-up to December 8 municipal elections, although he still faces a severely distorted economy with embarrassing product shortages and inflation surging to nearly 55 percent.
"I want to thank the majority of patriotic and socialist lawmakers for approving this law that will let us advance, over the next 12 months, in defeating the economic war being waged against our people," Maduro said.
An Attack on Private Property
- The mouth-breathing Leftist masses empty the store shelves of the "evil" capitalists on the orders of their Socialist Dictator.
Thousands of people have lined up in front of electronics stores and hardware stores that have been forced at gun point by Maduro to empty their inventories at cut-rate prices.
His party is hoping the moves will revive its chances in the upcoming elections for about 370 mayors and city council members.
"Don't leave anything on the shelves," Maduro said when he announced his campaign against what Socialists call "price gouging" and what the rest of the world calls free enterprise.
Maria Davila felt like a winner after emerging from the Traki department store with clothes for herself and her husband, as well as toys for their four children.
Davila spent 14 hours in line to make her purchases after the store reduced prices by up to 70% on merchandise to comply with Maduro's crusade against the country's "parasitical bourgeoisie," reports USA Today.
"It was well worth the wait," Davila, 42, says of her ordeal. "I saved so much money. I feel like I won the lottery."
"The opposition is going to do very well in the largest cities and state capitals,'' says Tarek Yorde, a Caracas-based political consultant. "I think they are going to win up to 25 of the country's 33 largest cities."
"They are destroying the Venezuelan economy,'' opposition leader Henrique Capriles Radonski said during a weekend campaign swing through the eastern state of Sucre. "People are waiting in line outside stores because they know that inventories are drying up."
